Inkjet technology has expanded its application to high-speed, commercial and industrial printing, in addition to home and office usage, because of its ability to produce economical, high quality, multi-colored prints. This technology is a non-impact printing method in which an electronic signal controls and directs droplets or a stream of ink that can be deposited on a wide variety of substrates. Current ink jet printing technology involves forcing the ink drops through small nozzles by thermal ejection, piezoelectric pressure, or oscillation, onto the surface of a media. The inkjet printing technique is extremely versatile in terms of the variety of substrate material that can be treated, as well as the print quality and the speed of operation that can be achieved.
Therefore, inkjet printing is nowadays becoming a popular way of recording images on various media surfaces and inkjet printers have found broad applications across markets, ranging from industrial labeling to short run printing, to desktop document, pictorial imaging and large format printing for outdoor applications such as banners, displays, posters, billboard and vehicle wraps.
Both dyes and pigments have been used as colorants for such inkjet ink formulations. However, such materials do not always adhere well to the substrates to which the ink is applied, especially when the ink formulations contain latex. The resulting printed image might have durability issues such as abrasion resistance, light-fastness, solvent-fastness and water-fastness. Furthermore, images created employing inkjet printing methodology may tend to run or smear upon repeated contact or may be removed easily from the printed surface.
In inkjet printing method, the receiving media substrates play a key role in the overall image quality and permanence of the printed images. Thus, it has often created challenges to find media which can be effectively used with such printing techniques and which have good image quality and good adhesion capability.